One of the recurring comments I’ve had with the launch of JEWAL is…why the ‘Data Mining’ component? Yes, there is a marketing angle to the name, as I mentioned in my last blog, but there are 2 other strong aspects to it.
First, it combines in a very noticeable “Headline” way, my background in Information Technology and how it helps to differentiate me and my consulting services. I don’t want JEWAL to be a “run of the mill” Management Consultant company, with Leadership, LSS, PM and CI expertise. There is a lot of competition already in these areas (internal company resources, big consulting companies, local players), so I need to have that differentiator. I believe my IT background, and the ability to utilize systems, applications and data to pull out relevant information and trends *and* also be able to help companies with next steps (and implementations) to achieve their own Operational Excellence is my niche. Data Mining to most people does infer an IT and Technology side, and that’s what I want the take-away from JEWAL to be.
Secondly, and as importantly, the field of Data Mining has long been a passion of mine. From personal interests such as car shopping (new and used pricing) to our numerous relocations and wanting to understand the housing market. I’ve built so many systems/apps over the years for personal (and business) needs, that it’s become 2nd nature to analyze (aka ‘slice and dice’) data for insights and knowledge gains for myself and/or the companies I’ve worked for. In fact, I had even spoken with MPAC about accessing their data to help other home buyers get a true, real-time, market value of a house based on data, not 1 or 2 Realtor’s opinions. Too many people don’t realize just how much fun and exciting data can be. 🙂
One common definition of Data Mining is the process of finding anomalies, patterns and correlations within large data sets to predict outcomes. The “Mining” isn’t the gathering and collection of the data, but it’s the extraction of those very patterns and trends to give guidance and a predictive model on what to do next. JEWAL truly is Data Mining; both the IT and Statistics portion, but also the identification and implementation of changes to go with what the data is showing. I’ll talk more about Data Mining, Analytics, and the whole field of Data Science in a future blog.
Happy Halloween,
Darren